Review: Neruppuda

Director: B Ashok Kumar; Cast: Vikram Prabhu, Nikki Galrani, Ponvannan, Aadukalam Naren

Film: Neruppuda

Director: B Ashok Kumar

Cast: Vikram Prabhu, Nikki Galrani, Ponvannan, Aadukalam Naren and others

Music: Sean Roldan

Cinematography: R D Rajasekar

Debutant B Ashok Kumar’s maiden film Neruppu Da is a typical commercial entertainer that has a little bit of several genres. The film has a bit of adventure, a decent amount of romance, lots of action and a generous helping of suspense too. But despite all that it has to offer, the film fails to impress.

Guru (Vikram Prabhu) and his four friends have one common ambition – to become firefighters. All five have nurtured this dream from childhood. Although they haven’t turned firemen yet, the five own a fire fighting vehicle and indulge in rescue and firefighting missions on their own. So impressed with their work and willingness to serve the public is the Fire Services Department’s Zonal officer that he keeps urging them to appear for the written exam to enter the Fire Services department. The boys too wait their turn to appear for the exam.

It is under these circumstances that one night, one of the five, Dhana, is attacked for no reason by a drunk goon called Sada. Sada launches the attack on Dhana in a bid to show off to his friend. Dhana, who shows a great amount of restraint initially, however, loses his cool after a point and pushes Sada in self defence. Unfortunately for him, Sada’s head rams against a stone and he dies on the spot.

Dhana and his friends later get to know that Sada is the right hand man of a notorious gangster called Pulianthope Ravi. Ravi is outraged that his man has been killed and vows to kill the murderers of his friend and fellow gangster.

This unusual and dangerous situation that they find themselves in forces the friends to miss the Fire Services Exam. The friends now have to take on Ravi on the one hand to escape his wrath and also have to figure a way out to enter the Fire Services.

In between, Guru falls in love with Vasumathi (Nikki Galrani) a medical student who is also the daughter of the Zonal officer in the Fire Department.

Initially, Pulianthope Ravi does not know who the killers of his friend are. But soon, he finds out and there is a confrontation. Ravi swears that he will kill all those close to Guru to extract revenge.

Naturally, Guru is worried and sets his mind on the task of driving sense into Ravi’s head. Just when Guru thinks he has made Ravi see reason, his father gets killed. An infuriated Guru sets out to get Ravi when he finds Ravi and his gangsters are already dead. If Pulianthope Ravi and his gangsters have all been killed, who killed his father? A new problem emerges…

Director Ashok Kumar seems to have had a problem in making up his mind on what kind of movie Neruppuda must be. He seems to have been unable to pick the right choice in the toss up between making a realistic film to inspire audiences and a film with exaggerated sequences to entertain. As a result, he seems to have made a film with both. The net result is he leaves his viewers immensely dissatisfied.

Neruppuda’s story is so exaggerated and far fetched from reality that it fails to inspire. At the same time, it is too idealistic for it to be entertaining.

The film has its strengths though and they are not small ones by any standards.

The first of these is some scintillating music from Sean Roldan. Almost all the songs of the film rock but Aalangiliye in particular steals your heart.

The next is R D Rajasekar’s camerawork, which leaves you spell bound on several occasions through the film. The aerial shots of the colony in particular are fantastic. The same can be said of the manner in which a couple of songs have been shot.

Three actors stand out in this film for their performances. The first of these is actress Sangita, who makes an appearance for less than 10 minutes but who actually shakes you out of your drowsiness with her scintillatingly fierce and captivating performance. The forceful performance is so hard hitting that it pushes all other good performances to the background.

Vikram Prabhu seems to have improved vastly with his acting in this film. The man looks the part and has no problems delivering a balanced and measured performance.

Vasumathi’s role is a cakewalk for Nikki Galrani, who comes across as a cute girlfriend and a loving daughter.

Although all of this work in favour of the film, the fact that director Ashok Kumar hasn’t capitalised on the film’s strengths have a telling effect on the final outcome. In short, Neruppuda is interesting in parts and entertaining on occasions.